"The Disappearing Papers."
First appearance: Future Fiction, November 1939.
Short short short story (3 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 74).
"The Judge dismissed the case because of insufficient evidence—for Professor Bradley's secret retribution was beyond detection by the greatest criminologist!"
IF there's more than one way to skin a cat, then there ought to be more than one way to make paper disappear, n'est-ce pas? And we do mean disappear, like "into thin air" . . .
Principal characters:
~ Woodsdale ("one of our most prominent American financiers"), Bradley ("physicist and discoverer in the field of volatile solids"), the Judge ("We have only hearsay evidence on the discovery"), Wigmore ("the Court is grateful to you"), and O'Connell ("It looks spooky").
References and resource:
- "Volatile solids":
It might surprise you to learn that they are a real thing:
"Total dissolved solids include both volatile and non-volatile solids. Volatile solids are ones that can easily go from a solid to a gaseous state. Non-volatile solids must be heated to a high temperature, typically 550 °C, in order to achieve this state change. Examples of non-volatile substances include salts and sugars." (Wikipedia HERE.)
"Volatile solids are substances that can easily transform from their solid phase to their vapor phase without going through a liquid phase. Volatile solids normally represent the amount of organic solids in water and have great importance in water and wastewater treatment." (Corrosionpedia HERE.)
- Our only encounter before now with Miles J. Breuer came almost nine years ago with his "The Puzzle Duel" (HERE).
The bottom line:
Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
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